...and the first of my friends have flown out to Oslo today. Juha, Phil, Franko, Peter and Keith have definitely arrived and reported back. Elaine, Andrew and David are all in the air from Scotland as I write.

Today in Oslo was sunny, and warmer than London has been recently, according to Juha. Beer is £10.50 for a pint, as expected, Franko reports. That's Heineken rubbish as well! I already expect this to be the most sober Eurovision trip ever.

The facebook updates are starting to trickle in. More importantly, the Eurovision blogs have started.

You can read Peter and Keith's first impressions of Oslo on All Kinds Of Everything. Andrew has already done a quick preview of the songs.

Phil and Franko have started the OnEurope blog from Oslo already. Nick has done previews.

Both blogs already have photos on too. This is going to be fun! Rehearsals don't even start until Sunday!

On a more personal note, I did something this morning which I possibly shouldn't have done. After mentioning the Tripoli air crash yesterday, I foolishly listened to the 5 Live discussion this morning with Victoria Derbyshire, on which she spoke to four people who have survived plane crashes, including Nigel Farage, just eight days on from his election day crash and a woman who survived Kegworth. I've been getting worse and worse about flying, with some justification. I hardly fly more than two or four times a year, but I've been on two flights in the last five years which have hit trouble. The one from Kyiv in 2005 went into a nosedive and a brief trip to Amsterdam on a calm day hit turbulence so bad that even the cabin crew looked petrified - and that's when I know to be worried. So, hearing all the stats on plane crashes was rather disconcerting, especially as I couldn't find convenient direct flights to Oslo, so I'll be on FOUR planes this month, with four take-offs and four landings (the bits I hate most).

There have apparently been 1,300 commercial plane crashes worldwide since the 1950s, which doesn't include military planes or anything with fewer than ten people. On the other hand, around 90% of people in plane crashes have survived, which is a surprise. It didn't help though, and I lay in bed for a couple of hours after the programme, paralysed by fear. I'll be very glad when next Thursday is over and I'm (hopefully) in our Oslo apartment. Then I can just worry for the next ten days about the two flights back.

Chig is directly descended from the following families. If you have one of these surnames, we're possibly related, so feel free to get in touch:
Crowe, Harborne/Harbourne, Higgins, Hutchins, O'Sullivan/Sullivan, Talliss/Tallis.